But this intelligent book reminds us of titantic moral struggles in
American history and those who engaged in them. It’s striking that the
Zinn-Chomsky generation lacks a successor in public discourse, that our
national political debate has narrowed so much. The book also reminds us
of when people would collectively act as citizens, sometimes
militantly, to be heard and get results. It spurs us to think, as Zinn
did, of utopian ideas — a Constitution that guarantees economic rights,
for instance, or a society that could sustain itself without a central
state, the core belief of anarchists and one intermittently asserted by
Zinn — and how mentally liberating those ideas can be.

Mostly,
Duberman’s biography captures what was so attractive about this radical
historian. “What will most certainly come down to future generations,”
Duberman concludes, “is Howard’s humanity, his exemplary concern for the
plight of others, a concern free of condescension or self-importance.
Howard always stayed in character — and that character remained centered
on a capacious solidarity with the least fortunate.”